Hendon football club has seen many legends, one of them is Gary McCann. The veteran started his career as a goalkeeper. In March 1997 he was signed as the goalkeeper of Hendon Football club. Since then both the club and Gary maintained a beautiful partnership for a period of ten years. At present, Gary is managing Hampton and Richmond Borough. The experienced goalkeeper has a gifted eye to spot new talents, which is the most important criteria of a great coach. One can safely say that future of England’s football is in the best hands. However, Gary has clarified many a times that it’s not the coach’s ability, what matters the most is the skill and perseverance of a player. According to him, his job is to spot young talents and guide them to the right direction.
Recently, I had caught up with Gary McCann, and he was kind enough to take out time from his busy schedule for a short conversation. He started the conversation praising heaps about the bunch of talented players of Hampton and Richmond Borough football club. He quoted “I am glad to be a part of the club and I am enjoying the journey.” I obviously ended up asking him about his experience with his previous club and he was soaked into emotion. He said, “Yeah I guess nothing stays forever so it was meant to happen at some point.” He further quoted “Hendon is my second home. It has given me everything. Love, respect, memories what not. I will always be grateful.” When asked about the future of Hendon he seemed confident saying, “Well the future is safe. They have a bunch of talented players. Hendon’s captain NoudineHmaimou is the player to look out for. He is an excellent technical winger with outstanding dribbling attributes. I am glad that I had spotted him and guided him ahead. He has a great leadership quality with the hunger to learn more.” He further added, “I had seen Nourdine play in U-18 team. I was instantly fascinated by his skill to move around the field. There is something special about him. I recommended him to play with senior team and train with the senior players. This helped him gain maturity both as player and person.”
He was very humble to accept his role in the growth of young talents. He stated, “I don’t play for them. You see they have to play their game. And as a player I know how difficult it is to spend 90 minutes in the ground. You have to defy many odds and it’s all your skill and hard work that helps. As a player and coach, I believe our duty is to promote young talents.”
He ended the conversation wishing everyone good luck. The legendary goalkeeper has a stand named after him in Hendon’s stadium. It’s evident that he has earned a position both as player and coach. We hope to see him pick more and more players.
